I love to listen to people. The tone of their voice can let you know how they really feel. I remember hearing my elders wish they started stretching in their forties. They truly believed that getting into a habit of stretching at a younger age was beneficial. Now that I am in my forties I have taken their word to heart. I stretch on a regular basis, trying different stretches each time.

I do not do yoga. I stretch. It’s what I do. Yoga has some great stretches that I like to do. However, I have some old faithful poses of my own that were around way before Yoga.

Moving on, I started with my basic warm ups then decided to do some lunge stretches. (Top picture except hands are on the forward knee.) These felt so great I thought I’d bring my hands to the floor. (Just like the pic). Holding this really stretched the hips. Then the thought hit me. I think I’m ready for the lizard pose. Everything felt great, why not? So I proceeded to lower myself to my elbows (bottom picture). This was an intense stretch to the hips. No pain meant no harm. Slowly everything started to relax. When it was time to switch I realized my mistakes. I settled in too much and couldn’t raise anything off of the spongy nonskid yoga mat. Ladies and gentlemen, I was stuck.

I thought about just falling over and rolling to my back. However, with two arms and a foot by my head I didn’t think this was the safest route. All it took was a slight movement of the leg extended back, and I was able to raise myself up. Of course I switched sides and did the pose again. I knew my right hip was stiffer and wouldn’t relax as far.

All in all, it’s a great stretch and I will work it into my routine. Here’s to having a great start to the day. FYI, since I’ve started routinely stretch, my hips have less pain, back feels great, and I’ve gained an extra mile on my run/walks. 🙂